I remember reading an reddit ama by him where he said his process of writing is more of an architect style: that is, he develops the overall arc of the major events in a series, and then fills in the details in each book. This allows him to project book release dates 1-2 yrs. out.
I enjoy Sanderson, but I really enjoy knowing when the next book in an enjoyable series is coming out as well.
Elantris is the least well written, so read it first or not first depending if you want to lose interest in Sanderson, or be let down by the writing style. The rest are excellent though.
Disclaimer- I'm a mere show-watcher, and avid reader of gameofthrones.wikia.com :-)
It's probably demotivating as a writer to see a lot of the twists you've been preparing for years exposed in the show before, stuff like hold the door, resurrection, etc.
I definitely feel the same way: the books were brilliant and as long as the TV series was showcasing the previously written material the plot and dialogue were very solid. Since they ran out of books to show I've perceived a very sharp decline in quality, and they've fallen back on cliffhangers, twists, sex and violence to keep the audience riveted. Unfortunately, for this particular viewer at least, it really isn't working very well.
I think the SF/f genre has really struggled lately...stuff like Brandon Sanderson writes feels so lightweight compared to even the second tier authors of the past, and there's very little flavor in books now; it's formulaic and narrowed to such a tight audience.
When was that not Game of Thrones MO?
Put differently, yes, those things were always there, but now they are ALL that is there.
I've noticed something similar with Westworld. I love the premise, and I'm a huge fan of Anthony Hopkins in particular. But the writing just feels so bad most of the time. I don't think it's a coincidence that the best scenes involve Hopkins, and what makes them good is not primarily the dialogue.
It's really... jarring to be watching something that clearly cost a lot of money to produce, involved a lot of very skilled people, and yet manages to be absolutely atrocious when it comes to dialogue or plot. It always makes me wonder how the showrunners managed to get the gig.
Both Westworld and GoT are HBO shows, so maybe that has something to do with it. While I do enjoy both shows, it's more for the cultural buy-in and the budgets involved. The writing pales in comparison to that of many other shows on other channels (FX being my favorite, followed by perhaps AMC)
(Incidentally, this is something I've been confused about for a while. How was Moffat allowed to ruin Doctor Who so utterly over multiple seasons? How did Braga/Berman get to be showrunners for Enterprise when at least one of them (don't remember which) was generally disliked for his contributions to earlier seasons?)
As for quality of material, I don't know whether to list Mr Robot as an example of good writing or not. It's got good dialogue (and accurate hacking scenes!) but overall the plot seems to be borderline-ludicrous and the Anonymous/Occupy Wall Street ”stick-it-to-the-man” objective seems so... puerile?
But, this season (7) particularly feels like an episodic TV show. Much faster paced, with less subtle-dialogue, and kind-of hit-you over-the-head plotlines and dialogue. For instance, in the first episode, Jaime painstakingly described to Cersei their predicament as if he was talking directly to the audience. It felt a bit dumbed-down and beneath previous seasons, wherein Tywin might've talked strategy more cleverly.
They are also using somewhat gimmicky cinematic devices, like Tyrion narrating alternative attacks on Casterly Rock; and Sam emptying toilets, cut with him serving food.
Altogether, I am still enjoying it though. Some of the book's plotlines weren't conducive to the screen (e.g. Bran's). So, reducing time spent in the tedium there was good IMO.
OTOH, it feels a little rushed and more "obvious". Don't know if it's because they are so far from the books now or they are just trying to wrap it up.